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en-usTechdirt. Stories filed under "gamification"https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/td-88x31.gifhttps://www.techdirt.com/Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:47:15 PDTHow The NSA Gamified Spying On Everyone With 'Skilz' Points For NSA AnalystsMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140618/15162127620/how-nsa-gamified-spying-everyone-with-skilz-points-nsa-analysts.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140618/15162127620/how-nsa-gamified-spying-everyone-with-skilz-points-nsa-analysts.shtmlrevealed by Der Spiegel, mostly concerning the NSA's operations in Germany, Andrea Peterson over at The Switch, noticed one only moderately terrifying tidbit in one of the documents: the NSA appears to have taken a lesson from the whole "gamification" movement and used it to help the NSA better spy on people.

You know all about "gamification" of course. The idea of adding "points" of some sort to just about everything, just to tap into people's competitive spirit so they have something to compare. Sometimes it includes things like being able to "level up" and unlocking features. The document in question is a document about some NSA training on the XKeyscore system, which, you'll recall, allows NSA analysts to pull up all sorts of info on people. Here's a screenshot we posted nearly a year ago:

The document has clearly been written by someone who is having quite a bit of fun, and references seven-headed dragons and Forrest Gump trolling for shrimp among other things. It includes bizarre "quotes" about how awesome XKeyscore is, as if it's a bad marketing brochure for some enterprise software:

"The first time I saw XKS, I said, 'Whoa!!' It is intimidating because you
open it up and you see all these queries and fields," said [REDACTED] "We took the
students from that response to being able to approach it and navigate around in it.
They see it differently now and know it's not a seven-headed dragon." This gentle
introduction has definitely enabled analysts to ease into XKS and get more
comfortable, and with that it has radically changed the overall mentality towards
the tool.

[....] Before the training, I was just happy to use it and not go to jail," said [REDACTED] .... "Now, I feel comfortable in my ability to use it and NOT go to jail. I used to always ask someone to look over my query before I submitted it. Now, my hand doesn't need to be held."

The document also talks about just how awesome XKeyscore is in that it comes up with results that other NSA systems can't turn up:

"Our analysts have been building hashes for document tracking and rolling them into fingerprints. We have been getting documents in XKS that we were not getting in our PINWALE queries. Just today analysts found reportable material from the Tunisian Ministry of Interior that was not from any selectors we were targeting. Now we know what we can do with XKS and exactly why we want to use it -- to make these discoveries.

These discoveries are igniting a trend of using XKS on a daily basis. "For daily pulls, analysts go through TransX, PINWALE, and now XKS to see what's new for the day," [REDACTED] said.

And then... we get to the gamification stuff, in which they discuss "XKS Skilz points." I'm not joking. XKS. Skilz. Points.

Combine these exciting finds with the introduction of XKS Skilz points, and you can see why McDonald's teamed up with Monopoly years ago: people buy more and even super size their orders just to get game pieces. With the brainchild of Skilz, where analysts can earn points and unlock achievements for performing tasks in XKS, people are willing to try new things within the tool. Analysts think to themselves, "Using the Prvot Data feature will earn 30 points... I'm going to try it and see what happens." Discovery! Points! We have been lured by our geeky desire to unlock achievements and earn points, and bragging rights are everything.

"Definitely a number of users have gotten into the Skilz points. We have several people at level six. They see what they need to do to earn more points and start trying out different things," said [REDACTED] In fact, ECC analysts now have the highest average of Skilz points compared to all of the S2 product lines and have written the most fingerprints per-capita! Some people say that the potent combination of Skilz points, the Circuit Training, and the team of easily-accessible, on-site instructors is the secret to ECC's successes with XKS.

It reads so crazy, I'm half hoping the NSA just comes out and admits that this is an internal April Fool's joke, but I fear that it may actually be serious. You can see that part on the bottom of page 3 in the embed below, or hell, here's a screenshot:

Gamification can be a potentially useful tool, but something seems kinda scary to think that the NSA is turning surveillance into a game where analysts get extra points and powers by doing more spying with the system. Just the fact that the document admits that they're using this to drudge up information that they can't find through their other systems and it's doubly concerning. Surveillance shouldn't be seen as a game by anyone.

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101111/18090811826Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:33:00 PDTMaking Your Kickstarter Even More Fun: Marian Call Turns Kickstarter Into European Adventure QuestMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120724/15125919814/making-your-kickstarter-even-more-fun-marian-call-turns-kickstarter-into-european-adventure-quest.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20120724/15125919814/making-your-kickstarter-even-more-fun-marian-call-turns-kickstarter-into-european-adventure-quest.shtmlbunch of experiments that helped her connect with fans and give them a reason to buy. As we noted, what she demonstrated is that it takes a lot of experiments to figure out what "works" for a particular creator and their fans. Some ideas will fail, and some will succeed. Since that time, I've checked in here and there on her career and it seems to be going great. I'd missed, however, that she launched a Kickstarter campaign last month, and thankfully Aaron deOliveira clued me in, thanks to a blogpost on Popehat about Marian Call's Kickstarter campaign, which has a few really cool features. So many artists are doing Kickstarter campaigns these days, that there's usually not that much to write about with them. But Marian (not surprisingly, given her willingness to test out "crazy" ideas, decided to take things a bit further with Kickstarter, and turn it into even more of a game than it normally is.

That is, she created Marian Call's European Adventure Quest, in which she effectively "gamified" Kickstarter, such that the more she earned, the more levels would be "unlocked." The main idea was that she would tour Europe and record a live album, but the more she raised, the more places she would visit and the more cover songs she would do (she usually does originals, but people have requested covers, and she was worried about the licensing fees if she didn't raise money in support). She's even got some nice retro video game graphics to show her progress:

The campaign is actually just about to end (within a few hours), but it just recently surpassed $55,000, which means that she'll be performing and recording "Particle Man" by They Might Be Giants... and she'll be doing it live at CERN, which is so awesomely appropriate.

One of the things we get concerned about, at times, is that people get so focused on how others have been successful with things like Kickstarter that they stop being additionally creative on their own and merely copy others' projects. But Marian is showing how you can continue to be creative above and beyond the basics of Kickstarter, and do so in way that is fun and better connects you with fans (while also getting those fans to support you in a big way). It's always great to see these kinds of inspiring examples.

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100520/2313279517Tue, 4 Oct 2011 17:00:00 PDTDailyDirt: Games Aren't Just For Fun AnymoreMichael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110908/23440015860/dailydirt-games-arent-just-fun-anymore.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110908/23440015860/dailydirt-games-arent-just-fun-anymore.shtmlgenius who can unlock the ninth chevron. Here are a few more examples.

By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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]]>urls-we-dig-uphttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110908/23440015860Fri, 8 Jul 2011 10:46:32 PDTUsing Gaming To Drive Desired Behavior: Privacy Policy As A GameMike Masnickhttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110708/03145715011/using-gaming-to-drive-desired-behavior-privacy-policy-as-game.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110708/03145715011/using-gaming-to-drive-desired-behavior-privacy-policy-as-game.shtmlOn the Media rebroadcast of their episode all about video games. The episode is fantastic, but the part that I found most fascinating was during the final section on the future of gaming, which includes a wonderful clip from a presentation by Jesse Schell, in which he talks about the potential to "gamify" pretty much everything in life, giving people "points" (possibly points that can have tax implications) for desired behavior. Some of that behavior may be "desired" because it's good for you (if you brush your teeth long enough, you get extra points). And some of it may be "desired" because it's good for some companies (if you drink five Dr. Peppers this week, you get extra points).

JESSE SCHELL: And what will that world be like? Well, I think it'll be like this: You get up in the morning to brush your teeth and the toothbrush can sense that you’re brushing your teeth, and so, hey [BELL TONE], good job for you! [AUDIENCE LAUGHTER] Ten points for brushing your teeth. And it can measure how long, and you’re supposed to brush ‘em for three minutes, and you did. And so you get a bonus for that. Hey [BELL TONE], you brushed your teeth every day this week, another bonus. All right, and who cares? The toothpaste company, the toothbrush company; the more you brush, the more toothpaste you use. They have a vested financial interest. So then you go and you get on the bus. The bus, why am I taking the bus? You’re taking the bus because the government has started giving out [BELL TONE] all kinds of bonus points to people who use public transportation, and you can use these points for, for tax incentives. And you get to work [BELL TONE] on time, good job. You, you get a, a special bonus. So then you go to lunch and you've had Dr. Peppers all week, and so you know you got to have another Dr. Pepper ‘cause you get 10 points [BELL TONE], 10 points [BELL TONE], 10 points [BELL TONE], 10 points, and then you'll have another one [BELL TONE]. You know there’s a special with Dr. Pepper this week. If you have five Dr. Peppers in a week [BELL TONE], 500 bonus points, so you definitely have to take advantage of that.

And then you've got a meeting at another building that’s a half a mile away. And you could take the shuttle over but you decide, I'm gonna walk because the health insurance plan that you’re on [BELL TONE] gives you bonus points if you walk like more than a mile each day, and we can sense that easily, you know, through your digital shoes. And if you get your heart rate up [BELL TONE] above a certain, a certain amount, then you get more bonus points from your health insurance company. So then you’re going shopping on the way home, and man, this is like a place you can get a lot of points, and it’s really complicated so you let your like your app figure it out. It like looks at all the point systems you have, it looks at what you want and then it tells you which ones to buy [BELL TONE] in order to get, ooh, wow, a lot of points, just because I make good choices shopping. And then you get home and your daughter’s like, oh, I got my report card. And you’re like [BELL TONE] oh, good job. I mean, you’re getting 2,000 points from the state for getting’ such good grades, and [BELL TONE] [LAUGHS] you’re getting 5,000 as a parent from the Obama bonus for the good parenting bonus, which you’re excited ‘cause you can use that as tax relief. And then you say, hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, did you practice your piano? And she’s like, yeah, I practiced my piano. Well, what score did you get? It’s like, oh, well, I got 150,000. A hundred and fifty thousand, that’s the best you've ever had on that particular [BELL TONE] sonata. That’s 9,000 points given by the Arts Council for your scholarship fund, so go you. Right?

Obviously, some of those things may strike some people as "good" and some may strike some people as "bad." But either way, understanding the likelihood of these things coming about is important, and you can see the full (extremely entertaining) video below.

In the opening of the video, before he gets into all the stuff above, he talks about Facebook accounts, and things like Farmville, from Zynga, which he describes as "scary." Well, perhaps the scary folks at Zynga watched the video too, and at least thought a little about it in relation to privacy policies. That's because Zynga has revamped their privacy policy to make it a game, called PrivacyVille. Now, I'm on record as saying I think the entire idea of a privacy policy is a failed concept. No one reads them. No one understands that the privacy policy could say "we don't care at all about your privacy." Even those who read them don't know what they mean. It's a joke that makes some "privacy experts" feel good to say that sites need privacy policies.

But, this gets a bit more intriguing, when a company actually tries to give people incentive to not just read, but to understand a privacy policy. I don't think that others will suddenly "gamify" their own privacy policies, but I'm definitely intrigued by the concept of doing something very different with a privacy policy, rather than just what everyone else does.

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]]>pros and conshttps://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110708/03145715011Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:00:00 PSTDailyDirt: Games For People... Not ComputersMichael Hohttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110121/10460612769/dailydirt-games-people-not-computers.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110121/10460612769/dailydirt-games-people-not-computers.shtmlenjoy playing -- or even winning. It'll be quite the feat to create artificial intelligence that actually understands which games are fun to play... and what games are boring. Game designers aren't guaranteed to create fun games, so it's not exactly an easy task for humans to figure out. But when a game is fun, people seem to naturally know it. That's not to say that every popular game is fun for everyone, but there seems to be some quality of good games that can't just be replicated easily. Here are a few quick links on games designed just for us humans.